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Mr. Buckeye
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Don Shula: Spygate would mar Pats' undefeated season
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...don_shula_spygate_would_mar_pats_undefea.html
Don Shula, the coach of the only perfect season in NFL history, believes the Patriots have a legitimate shot at running the table and joining his '72 Dolphins in going undefeated in the regular season and playoffs. But if they can pull it off, Shula insists the NFL needs to place an asterisk next to the Patriots in the record books because Bill Belichick got caught cheating in the Spygate scandal.
Shula is naturally protective of the Dolphins' accomplishment and certainly wants that '72 team to stand alone. Long ago, he said, he learned that "rooting doesn't make anything happen. The Patriots look so good. I think they got a real shot at doing it."
The Dolphins were 14-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs, including the Super Bowl. If the Patriots don't lose, they will finish 19-0. Shula admires the Patriots' team, but then, without being asked, he said Spygate negatively impacts the way they should be perceived this season.
"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished. You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it," Shula told the Daily News yesterday. "Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,00 and they lost a first-round draft choice. That tells you the seriousness or significance of what they found.
"I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a No.1 draft choice was taken away during that year of accomplishment. The sad thing is Tom Brady looks so good, it doesn't look like he needs any help."
Told that he might get support in his desire to have an asterisk placed next to New England's potential perfect season, Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history, said, "I don't know how people can't agree with that."
The Patriots were caught on the sidelines videotaping the Jets' defensive signals in the first half of the opening game of this season. They were forced to turn over tapes of all their previous spying to two league senior vice presidents in Foxborough in September. After they were viewed, commissioner Roger Goodell surprisingly ordered the tapes destroyed.
"You have to acknowledge what they accomplished, but I don't know how you disregard Spygate," Shula said. "It's there. It happened. You don't know what was on those tapes and how much it helped. I think the commissioner just wanted it to go away."
The Patriots are 9-0 after their 24-20 victory over the previously undefeated Colts in Indianapolis on Sunday. They overcame a 10-point deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining, which may have been their biggest challenge to making it through the regular season undefeated. If they didn't lose Sunday in a hostile environment against the defending Super Bowl champions after not playing well until the fourth quarter, then just who is going to beat them?
There have been serious runs made at a perfect regular season in the 35 years since the Dolphins did it. The '85 Bears started 12-0, then lost on a Monday night to Shula and the Dolphins. Shula invited many of the players from the '72 team to stand on the sidelines for that game. The '91 Commanders were 11-0, the '98 Broncos and '05 Colts started 13-0 and the '06 Colts opened 9-0.
When the Chargers beat the Colts two years ago, Dick Anderson, a safety on the '72 Dolphins, paid for a case of Dom Perignon champagne to be delivered to the Chargers.
Anderson and Nick Buoniconti, the former Dolphins linebacker, live on the same street in the Miami area and share a tradition of meeting in one of their driveways to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne when the last undefeated team goes down.
"They are too cheap to invite the rest of us to the party," Shula said.
The perception has been that the '72 Dolphins are sitting around ready to drink up if the Patriots lose. "I think the champagne celebrations have been blown out of proportion," Shula said.
In fact, Jim Mandich, a tight end on that Dolphins team and now an analyst on their radio broadcasts, resents how that team has been portrayed.
"You guys put forth the myth that we are pathetic losers down here clicking champagne glasses and clinging desperately to a record set 35 years ago," Mandich said yesterday. "Somehow we've been portrayed as being evil. We don't ever blow our own horn. It's a great record, but the record doesn't get beaten. The Patriots have assembled a powerhouse of a team. They are a classy bunch of guys and play ball the right way. If they want to join the unbeaten club, come on aboard."
Anderson admits that if the record stands, "We would not be unhappy. We're not trying to be obnoxious about it, but we're proud we have a record nobody else does. If New England does it this year, we will sit and raise a glass of champagne to them."
Shula might not take a sip, unless the glass has an asterisk imprinted on it.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...don_shula_spygate_would_mar_pats_undefea.html
Don Shula, the coach of the only perfect season in NFL history, believes the Patriots have a legitimate shot at running the table and joining his '72 Dolphins in going undefeated in the regular season and playoffs. But if they can pull it off, Shula insists the NFL needs to place an asterisk next to the Patriots in the record books because Bill Belichick got caught cheating in the Spygate scandal.
Shula is naturally protective of the Dolphins' accomplishment and certainly wants that '72 team to stand alone. Long ago, he said, he learned that "rooting doesn't make anything happen. The Patriots look so good. I think they got a real shot at doing it."
The Dolphins were 14-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs, including the Super Bowl. If the Patriots don't lose, they will finish 19-0. Shula admires the Patriots' team, but then, without being asked, he said Spygate negatively impacts the way they should be perceived this season.
"The Spygate thing has diminished what they've accomplished. You would hate to have that attached to your accomplishments. They've got it," Shula told the Daily News yesterday. "Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was fined $250,00 and they lost a first-round draft choice. That tells you the seriousness or significance of what they found.
"I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds' home run record. I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a No.1 draft choice was taken away during that year of accomplishment. The sad thing is Tom Brady looks so good, it doesn't look like he needs any help."
Told that he might get support in his desire to have an asterisk placed next to New England's potential perfect season, Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history, said, "I don't know how people can't agree with that."
The Patriots were caught on the sidelines videotaping the Jets' defensive signals in the first half of the opening game of this season. They were forced to turn over tapes of all their previous spying to two league senior vice presidents in Foxborough in September. After they were viewed, commissioner Roger Goodell surprisingly ordered the tapes destroyed.
"You have to acknowledge what they accomplished, but I don't know how you disregard Spygate," Shula said. "It's there. It happened. You don't know what was on those tapes and how much it helped. I think the commissioner just wanted it to go away."
The Patriots are 9-0 after their 24-20 victory over the previously undefeated Colts in Indianapolis on Sunday. They overcame a 10-point deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining, which may have been their biggest challenge to making it through the regular season undefeated. If they didn't lose Sunday in a hostile environment against the defending Super Bowl champions after not playing well until the fourth quarter, then just who is going to beat them?
There have been serious runs made at a perfect regular season in the 35 years since the Dolphins did it. The '85 Bears started 12-0, then lost on a Monday night to Shula and the Dolphins. Shula invited many of the players from the '72 team to stand on the sidelines for that game. The '91 Commanders were 11-0, the '98 Broncos and '05 Colts started 13-0 and the '06 Colts opened 9-0.
When the Chargers beat the Colts two years ago, Dick Anderson, a safety on the '72 Dolphins, paid for a case of Dom Perignon champagne to be delivered to the Chargers.
Anderson and Nick Buoniconti, the former Dolphins linebacker, live on the same street in the Miami area and share a tradition of meeting in one of their driveways to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne when the last undefeated team goes down.
"They are too cheap to invite the rest of us to the party," Shula said.
The perception has been that the '72 Dolphins are sitting around ready to drink up if the Patriots lose. "I think the champagne celebrations have been blown out of proportion," Shula said.
In fact, Jim Mandich, a tight end on that Dolphins team and now an analyst on their radio broadcasts, resents how that team has been portrayed.
"You guys put forth the myth that we are pathetic losers down here clicking champagne glasses and clinging desperately to a record set 35 years ago," Mandich said yesterday. "Somehow we've been portrayed as being evil. We don't ever blow our own horn. It's a great record, but the record doesn't get beaten. The Patriots have assembled a powerhouse of a team. They are a classy bunch of guys and play ball the right way. If they want to join the unbeaten club, come on aboard."
Anderson admits that if the record stands, "We would not be unhappy. We're not trying to be obnoxious about it, but we're proud we have a record nobody else does. If New England does it this year, we will sit and raise a glass of champagne to them."
Shula might not take a sip, unless the glass has an asterisk imprinted on it.
